Tauck is introducing an immersive eight-day exploration of the Swiss and Bavarian Alps that will include a performance of the traditional Passion Play in the village of Oberammergau, Germany. Residents of the village have been staging the performance depicting the final days of Jesus Christ since 1634, when villagers vowed to perform the play each decade if they were spared from a plague ravaging Europe at the time. The 2020 staging of the play was postponed due to COVID, and has been rescheduled for this year.
Tauck guests will view their performance from the Passion Play theater’s Category 1 seating. The performance is just one highlight of the new “Swiss Highlands & Bavarian Alps” itinerary, which begins in Bern, where guests will join a guided tour to the Rosengarten, and learn about the city’s long association with bears during a visit to Bärenpark.
Later, they will pass by the one-time home of Albert Einstein where he developed his groundbreaking Theory of Relativity, before visiting the Einstein Museum inside the Bern History Museum. During their two-night stay in Bern, guests will also visit the Craftman Village in Wasen, attend a wrestling demonstration at the “Schwingen” club in Affoltern, and enjoy an interactive cheese-making tour in Emmental that concludes with a dinner.
After departing Bern, and while en route to the Swiss city of St. Gallen, guests will enjoy an opportunity to “meet” members of the Habsburg family at the medieval Habsburg Castle, one of Europe’s most powerful and influential royal houses during the Middle Ages. This experience features performers in period dress sharing insights into the Habsburgs’ daily lives and family history, while guests enjoy a three-course meal in one of the castle’s banquet halls. Afterward, guests will participate in a chocolate-making experience during a visit to a Swiss chocolatier whose roots date back 170 years. Arriving in St. Gallen, guests will enjoy a walking tour, a demonstration at the city’s textile museum and a visit to the Abbey Library of Saint Gall.
Guests will also visit Appenzell and enjoy a cable-car excursion that will take them to the summit of Santis Peak. They will cross into Germany the following day for the Oberammergau Passion Play. Following an overnight stay in the village, the tour will end with a two-night stay in Munich, highlighted by a visit to the Baroque Nymphenburg Palace and its Carriage Museum, housed in the palace’s former riding stables. Guests will also visit the nearby Nazi-era Dachau concentration camp before returning to Munich to explore the city. The tour’s farewell reception and dinner will follow at a local restaurant that evening. Departures for the new tour will operate from May through September, with all 2022 journeys including a performance of the Oberammergau Passion Play.
For more information, visit www.tauck.com.
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